A Story of Us
by herworship429
Summary: He smiles quietly and wishes her luck, because even though she calls him a pompous git every time he sends her to detention, seven years ago, she was still the one who didn't laugh at him when he got lost on the way to the Great Hall.


Uh, I'm not good at romance, so this is new for me. And that's probably why it's not overly romancey. Obviously we know next to nothing about Audrey, so this is pure speculation on my part. But... I hope you enjoy it :)

Percy and Audrey and everyone else belong to JK Rowling, and I am definitely not her.

* * *

He is the tall, gangly boy with bright red hair and hideous glasses; she is the girl with witch eyes, who carries her wand stuck through her blonde ponytail. They are eleven years old, about to board the train to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, and that is all Percy Weasley and Audrey Noble have in common.

Audrey is Muggleborn, but she is a Muggleborn who grew up being best friends with a Half-blood witch, and therefore is not at all lost in the Wizarding World. Percy is a Pureblood who has lived in the Wizarding World his whole life, but he still gets lost on his way to the Great Hall, despite being surrounded by dozens of other students. A boisterous, friendly ghost points him in the right direction, and Audrey's friends laugh at him, but she smiles sympathetically and hands him back his glasses when a passing Slytherin knocks him sideways. She's taller than him, for the moment, and his ears turn red as he looks up and thanks her. She nods and smiles again before her friends pull her away.

Percy doesn't feel much like a Gryffindor, but he can hardly argue the Sorting Hat's decision right there in front of everyone. Audrey is nearly made a Hufflepuff, but at the last second, the hat decides her random acts of ill-advised heroism, and her trickster streak, might be too much for the House of the Badger. And so, sitting on opposite sides of the Gryffindor table, with a dozen or so of their housemates in between them, Percy and Audrey find something else they have in common.

Percy has two older brothers; Charlie is the quidditch star, and the animal lover, and Percy has no fears about competing with him. Bill, however, is everything Percy wishes he could be. Audrey's older sister is a Muggle, and doesn't go to Hogwarts, but Amanda is the perfect daughter, and Audrey is just Audrey.

Percy would scoff at the phrase "nobody's perfect"; he intends to do whatever he can to be the perfect son, and therefore, has no friends to speak of. Audrey discovers that she doesn't care what her parents think or want, and decides to follow her own star, which means she is bubbly and fun and a little bit wicked, and she has a plethora of friends to keep her company on the school holidays.

By the age of fifteen, Audrey has grown up a great deal. She is still a tomboy who carries her wand stuck through her ponytail, and the only skirt she's ever worn in her life is part of her uniform, but now she is pretty, despite her innerving grey stare. The handful of boys she's dated have nothing to complain about, except that she is easily distracted.

Percy is not distracted. Ever. He sets a goal, and gets it done, and moves on to the next. And none of his goals have anything to do with a social life, which is why he ends up dating Penelope Clearwater, who is just as driven and quiet as he is. He hasn't changed much since First Year; he is still tall and gangly, and still wears his hideous glasses and his hair is as red as it ever was.

Percy has plans; grand, impressive plans, plans his father would have smiled proudly and then chuckled at, plans that include being Minister of Magic. His record-breaking O's-across-the-board NEWT scores are only step one.

Audrey has plans too, and they don't require perfect O's in mundane subjects like Muggle Studies or Arithmancy. She aces Ancient Runes only because she loves the romance of dead languages, forgotten history and secret codes. Plus, she thinks it will be useful someday. Step one of her plans commence when she sends off her application to the Auror training program, a move that shocks everyone who knows her. Everyone except Percy, who smiles quietly and wishes her luck, because even though she calls him a pompous git every time he sends her to detention, seven years ago, she was still the one who didn't laugh at him when he got lost on the way to the Great Hall.

* * *

Percy still has no social life, but he loves his job. He still sees Penelope, but their relationship is waning, and they both know it. Things with his family have gone from bad to worse, but he finds it easier to just not think about it. He is stubborn, as he's always been, and he is determined that he is right. He insists to himself he won't be the one to admit defeat.

Audrey is in her element, and loving every minute of training. She's lost touch with a lot of friends, but she's made new ones, and if nothing else, she still sees Percy every day. They've become each other's crutch and confidant, despite the fact that he thinks she's going to get herself killed and she thinks his girlfriend is crazy.

The evening of August 1st changes everything, though no one really notices. It would be weeks yet before the Muggleborn Registration Commission, before the trials and the "mysterious disappearances". Audrey and Percy, however, are two of the handful of Ministry employees who notice immediately that something is wrong.

At the first signs of Muggleborn persecution, Percy finds his way to Kingsley Shacklebolt, and despite the rift between Percy and his family (which has apparently extended to the whole of the Order by now), he convinces the older man to get Audrey to safety _before_ things got any worse.

She refuses to go completely, though, finding herself in hiding with the rest of Percy's family, which was an odd and slightly-uncomfortable situation. The twins were ruthlessly-unforgiving when it came to their older brother, and Molly broke into tears every time his name was mentioned; she knew Arthur, from work, and she knew he was secretly terrified for his son's safety in the new regime, no matter what he might have said on the subject. Ginny, though, quickly became the little sister Audrey never had, and the two were thick as thieves; the younger girl remained the only Weasley who would talk about Percy. And despite the gravity of the situation, she never let pass an opportunity to explain how Audrey was completely in love with him. Audrey denied it, of course; she insisted that she was only blushing because the proposition was so outlandish. They were best friends, after all. It would just be strange to fall in love with Percy Weasley.

The others go to help Harry Potter at Hogwarts, but Audrey doesn't; she goes to the Ministry instead, where she knows scores of innocents will be still locked up awaiting trial. She's going where she's needed.

Percy will never be the same, after Fred's death, and the shock of it was paralyzing, for a while. But finally, amongst all the celebrations, he is snapped out of his haze when he realizes Audrey didn't come with his family. As he demands to know where she is, his father can't help but smile knowingly. He supposed some good things would come from this; good things had to come from this, or he wasn't sure he could handle it. The smile fades, though, when it's worked out that she went back to help the Order members who were fighting at the Ministry.

Percy Apparates without further discussion, and in a half-collapsed hallway near the courtrooms, he finds her unconscious and half-buried, and the thought that she might be dead too sends a quiver of fear down his spine that nearly brings him to his knees.

She is fine, and she keeps telling him that. She doesn't need his fussing. He's the one with the black eye, and the broken glasses, and cuts all over his arms and face. A Medi-witch silences them both with a threat to chain them to their beds if they don't stop arguing and get some rest.

They're heroes, after all. It wouldn't do for a couple of heroes to fall ill on her watch.

They stop arguing, and Audrey does something her teenage self would have never, ever done: she kisses Percy Weasley, right on the lips, for all the world to see. Or at least, for the two other people in the room who aren't asleep to see. He can't quite believe what is happening, but for once in his life, he stops questioning it. All Audrey can think is that Ginny will never, ever let her live this down, and maybe she's okay with that.

* * *

Audrey is wearing a dress, ignoring her sister's attempts to ruin her day, trying to keep her mother from passing out at the sight of so many witches and wizards in one place, fielding angry letters from distant relatives who are upset that they weren't invited to attend, and wishing this day was over so she could just get on with her life.

Percy is in dress robes, not quite believing that this is about to actually happen, trying to keep his mother from losing her head (or hexing anyone else's), attempting to convince his father that pestering Audrey's about Muggle things could wait until the reception, and hoping against all hope that George, Ron and Harry can be reasonable adults for once and _not_ set off those fireworks he'd caught them hiding in the bushes earlier.

But none of that much matters when he is finally standing at the altar watching Audrey trip and curse her way down the isle towards him. He doesn't care that she keeps having to mutter "_Reparo!_" every time she steps on her train and rips the hem; he doesn't care that everyone on her side of the yard (except for her father, who is exchanging grins with his father across the isle, because Audrey insisted that no one was giving her away but herself) is wearing disapproving looks, and everyone on his side is trying not to laugh uproariously. He doesn't care that his mother is sobbing uncontrollably, and hers looks intensely nervous. He knows that George and Ron and Harry probably are setting off the fireworks after the ceremony anyway, and that Audrey probably told them to, because that was the sort of thing his soon-to-be-wife would do.

And Audrey doesn't care that her mother is about to have a heart attack, or that her sister is muttering catty remarks to one of their cousins, or that her dad and Percy's look as thick as thieves, despite having the whole isle in between them. She doesn't care that her soon-to-be-mother-in-law is bawling uncontrollably, or that most of his family is nearly in hysterics over the fact that she can't walk in heels to save her life. All that matters is that she has finally made it down that damn isle, and her husband-to-be should be in hysterics of an entirely different sort, because nothing about this day is going to plan, but he isn't. Instead, he's standing there with an idiotic grin on his face, and he forgets his vows and starts talking about cauldrons before the little wizard performing the ceremony gets him back on track, and then there is the double 'I do's and the fireworks go off, probably finally sending her mother into coronary arrest.

But he is her husband now, officially, as of this moment, and she is his wife, and neither of them could be any happier, even if the "happily ever after wedding fireworks" had been accidentally switched with the "new baby on the way fireworks", and they are now proclaiming things like "bun in the oven" across the sky.

Oh well, she thinks with a shrug. She had to tell them eventually, didn't she?

* * *

Thoughts and opinions are welcome, as long as they're not unnecessarily mean :)


End file.
